The view of human nature by niccolo machiavelli

These were the English cardinal Reginald Pole and the Portuguese bishop Jeronymo Osorioboth of whom lived for many years in Italy, and the Italian humanist and later bishop, Ambrogio Caterino Politi. For Machiavelli, a truly great prince can never be conventionally religious himself, but he should make his people religious if he can.

The Mirror of Princes genre. Machiavelli married Marietta Corsini in It is possible to summarize some of the main influences emphasized by different commentators. Xenophon is also an exception in this regard. Machiavelli, however felt that people generally tended to work for their own best interests and gave little obligation to the well being of the state.

But humanists did not go so far as to promote the extra glory of deliberately aiming to establish a new state, in defiance of traditions and laws. Decently dressed, I enter the ancient courts of rulers who have long since died.

Machiavelli was critical of Catholic political thinking and may have been influenced by Averroism. Machiavelli makes Hobbes look like a naive, philanthropic optimist. Nevertheless, he advocated intensive study of the past, particularly regarding the founding of a city, which he felt was a key to understanding its later development.

Whatever his intentions, which are still debated today, he has become associated with any proposal where " the end justifies the means ". Machiavellianism and Machiavellian intelligence Cesare Borgiaused as an example of a successful ruler in The Prince Machiavelli is most famous for a short political treatise, The Princewritten in but not published untilfive years after his death.

He is a careful and intelligent observer of the world around him, but there is nothing to suggest that any of his staements on human nature are meant to be self-sufficient and unqualified by what he has to say elsewhere. Some have argued that his conclusions are best understood as a product of his times, experiences and education.

The Prince does something similar — with humanism, Christianity, political practice, traditional virtues, even mirror-for-princes books. In the wake of the siege, Soderini resigned as Florentine head of state and left in exile. He undertook to describe simply what rulers actually did and thus anticipated what was later called the scientific spirit in which questions of good and bad are ignored, and the observer attempts to discover only what really happens.

He assumes only that it is unsafe to count upon their acting otherwise than in their own interests. Yet Thucydides never calls in question the intrinsic superiority of nobility to baseness, a superiority that shines forth particularly when the noble is destroyed by the base.

Even if Machiavelli was not himself evil, Leo Strauss declared himself inclined toward the traditional view that Machiavelli was self-consciously a "teacher of evil," since he counsels the princes to avoid the values of justice, mercy, temperance, wisdom, and love of their people in preference to the use of cruelty, violence, fear, and deception.

Influence[ edit ] To quote Robert Bireley: For a prince who knows no other control but his own will is like a madman, and a people that can do as it pleases will hardly be wise.Machiavelli’s Conception of Human Nature.

Robert Bass Department of Philosophy Coastal Carolina University Conway, SC [email protected] Simple versions of Machiavelli’s conception of human nature may readily be elicited from The killarney10mile.com is easy to find textual support for claims that appear to presuppose or be equivalent to some version of psychological egoism.

Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian renaissance, historian, philosopher, politician, humanist and writer,born on 3rd May He is known as the first modern political thinker. (Why is Machiavelli considered as the first modern political thinker.

Niccolo Machiavelli was a political philosopher from Florence Italy. He lived during the Italian Renaissance from May to This period in time that Machiavelli lived was the "rebirth" of art in Italy and rediscovery of ancient philosophy, literature and science.

The major difference between Machiavelli and the Socratics, according to Strauss, is Machiavelli's materialism, and therefore his rejection of both a teleological view of nature and of the view that philosophy is higher than politics. What were Machiavelli's political views?

Update Cancel. While this answer does not at all sum the entire idea of Machiavelli's political views, I hope this is concise enough to give the big ideas of what he proposes as idea. What was Niccolo Machiavelli's view of human nature?

Ask New Question. Brannon Smith, works at University of. Machiavelli’s view of human nature. Machiavelli has long been required reading for everyone intrested in politics and power.